A news release says Keaveny will also be involved in education and training for safety officers and managers at the Department of Labour and Advanced Education.

The province announced in February it was hiring 17 additional staff for its safety division, including inspectors, engineers and a division focused on education and compliance.

New inspectors were part of a construction safety blitz last week that targeted high-risk workplaces, the government’s release said. During the concentrated effort, inspectors increased their random, unannounced job site visits by 25 per cent over the last blitz held last fall, it said.

According to the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, 582 people have died in this province at, or because of, work since the Westray mine disaster.

That industrial accident, in May 1992 in Plymouth, Pictou County, claimed the lives of 26 men working underground. The coal mine has long been decommissioned.

The province has a toll-free phone number (1-800-952-2687) people can call to report job safety concerns. It’s staffed 24 hours a day.